How HealthShare Victoria can help you with the Healthy choices: policy directive

HealthShare Victoria (HSV) was established on 1 January 2021 as a commercially oriented independent provider of supply chain, procurement and corporate shared services for Victoria’s public health sector.

HSV partners with Victoria’s public health services and suppliers to ensure the right products and services are delivered to the right place at the right time, supporting better value for public health services and better outcomes for their patients.

HSV has a collective agreement for Catering Supplies to supply food and beverages to health services.

*Note: Regional health services are able to directly purchase fresh bread, fresh meat, fresh poultry, and fresh fruit and vegetables from local suppliers rather than sourcing it through HSV’s collective agreement.

Products include:

• Beverages
• Fresh bread
• Cooked meat
• Fresh meat
• Dairy products
• Fresh poultry
• Domestic kitchenware consumables
• Fresh pre-prepared meals and meal components
• Dry, chilled and frozen pantry items
• Fresh white milk
• Eggs
• Pre-prepared desserts

• Health service-managed (internal) cafes and kiosks
• In-patient/residential menus that are also available to staff and visitors
• Health service-managed vending machines.
• In-house staff/event catering

The Department of Health and the Healthy Eating Advisory Service have classified many of the commonly-used products on the HSV Catering Supplies contract (HPVC2021-041) that health services access.

Items have been classified according to the Healthy Choices: food and drink classification guide, and these items are identifiable with GREEN and AMBER classifications in the contracted goods Pricing Schedule.

These classifications will assist health services in finding healthier options to help them meet Policy directive requirements.

Health service personnel who have access to the HSV website contracts portal can access the Pricing Schedule and associated classifications via their health service HSV portal.

Portal access rights are determined by health services. If you have access, view the list by clicking this link: https://healthsharevic.org.au/contracts-and-tenders/contracts-and-documents?q=catering&limit=100&sort=title&dir=.

Once in the link, you can add the HPVC2021-041 Catering Supplies contract as a ‘favourite’, then select and press ‘submit’. Doing this will send you an email notification each time HSV uploads catering supplies information to the portal.

Health service personnel who don’t have access to the HSV portal can obtain a list of the classified products from the Healthy Eating Advisory Service or HSV.

A number of grocery distributors and suppliers have been involved in this process to understand and classify their products according to the Healthy Choices guidelines.

The Victorian Government has supported Nutrition Australia and the Healthy Eating Advisory Service to assist distributors in classifying their products and provide education sessions on the importance and value of providing Healthy Choices options in health services.

Your grocery distributors and suppliers may be able to assist you in finding additional GREEN/AMBER options.

If your distributors and/or suppliers require more information, they can refer to FoodChecker or contact the Healthy Eating Advisory Service for further support: 1300 22 52 88.

For more information on HSV visit https://healthsharevic.org.au.

For portal access and information contact:

• HSV helpdesk: helpdesk@healthsharevic.org.au (03) 9947 3900
• HSV Customer Relationship Manager directly: https://healthsharevic.org.au/contact-us/customer-engagement/

For information on understanding classifications and the Policy directive at your health service: Contact the Healthy Eating Advisory Service: 1300 22 52 88.